


*Insert Coffee Pun Here*

by Adishailan



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Banter, Coffee, Coffee Puns, Dysarthria, F/M, Fluff, Fluffy Romance, Friendship, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Romance, SO MUCH FLUFF, Slight Hurt/Comfort, Sort Of, a lot of coffee, half-blind character, hints of eating disorders, kind of mute main character, lots of puns in general
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-08-17 00:12:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 17,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16505426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adishailan/pseuds/Adishailan
Summary: Pen in hand, she carefully ran the tip of the liquid chalk over the black surface, flicking her 'r's and crossing her 't's with a slight slant. It took less than a minute for her to finish her work and stand up to admire it. She was no longer smiling but she was clearly content with her work by the steady look in her eyes and the small nod she gave herself.She turned back to her cafe, flicking the closed sign over to open as she went through. Behind her the wind picked up again, making the chalkboard sign click as it swayed, and causing the white calligraphic letters to flash faintly in the early morning light.'Give espresso a shot, you'll like it a latte.'There was a slight shuffling sound of carpeted slippers on concrete from behind the chalkboard and a long silence as the owner of the slippers read the sign."heh."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> When thinking of this story I have two inspirations. The first one was the thought of Sans reaction to discovering those coffee shop signs with coffee puns, and the second was the song 'Love like you' from Steven Universe. I tried to recreate the calm feeling from this song (not the lyrics themselves, don’t worry) in my writing and I hope I succeeded.

* * *

 

The wind whistled softly down the silent streets of the city, sauntering past freshly empty bins and graffiti-free benches and swinging on open windows and hinged store signs. For a moment, it paused in its leisurely stroll to dance with a lone plastic bag, circling it high up into the clear but pale, early morning sky, before it continued on, curling down alleys and spreading its reach through the many twists and turns of the city. 

Andy's lips twitched up into what was almost a smile as this gentle breeze kissed her cheeks and ran its fingers through her hair, bouncing the soft curls as she knelt down in front of the cafe chalkboard. 

Pen in hand, she carefully ran the tip of the liquid chalk over the black surface, flicking her 'r's and crossing her 't's with a slight slant. It took less than a minute for her to finish her work and stand up to admire it. She was no longer smiling but she was clearly content with her work by the steady look in her eyes and the small nod she gave herself. 

She turned back to her cafe, flicking the closed sign over to open as she went through. Behind her the wind picked up again, making the chalkboard sign click as it swayed, and causing the white calligraphic letters to flash faintly in the early morning light.

** Give espresso a shot, you'll like it a latte.  **

There was a slight shuffling sound of carpeted slippers on concrete from behind the chalkboard and a long silence as the owner of the slippers read the sign.  

"heh."

 

* * *

 

"Morning boss," murmured Mr. Day with his usual crusty morning voice, as Andy re-entered her cafe. She blinked at him in mild surprise, unaware of how he got in without her noticing. 

"...Couldn't get much sleep last night," he explained, furrowing his bristly eyebrows as he mistook the question in her glance for something else. He pulled down the last of the bar stools off the coffee bar with a scowl. 

Andy nodded and turned on the small heel of her smart blue shoes and scooped a 'mango ice blast' smoothie from the refrigerator, uncapping a pen as she did so and scrawling something down the side. 

Mr. Day watched her quietly before reaching out a calloused, shaking hand for the finished result. A small smile curled at his lined lips when he read what had been written:

** Something to brighten up our  _Day_.  **

He chuckled faintly, leaning over to ruffle Andy's hair before uncapping the bottle and downing the juice. 

Andy puffed out a sigh and made her way to the mirror above the espresso machine, to check her reflection. Absentmindedly, she curled the stray strands between her fingers, tucking them back into the large mass of hair, and flicked off a stray lash from under one of her eyes. She looked into them, the small upturn to her lips fading somewhat as she met her own mismatched gaze. 

She was distracted from her self inspection by a large crash from the front of the cafe as a skinny blonde woman, with thin, wispy hair scraped up into two pigtail buns, and wide watery eyes, barrelled through the door, knocking some poor sod outside the door in her haste. Not that the woman noticed.  

"Hi Andy!" the frazzled whirlwind, otherwise known as Lizzi, burst out, dashing up to the front to skid to a halt not two feet away from an amused (if still tired) looking Mr. Day. "My alarm broke today, I'm so sorry. I hope I'm not late!" 

Andy shook her head, pointing up to the clock which, while having no numbers with every hour marked with 'teatime', was still readable as 6:50 am, a full ten minutes before Lizzi was supposed to start. Lizzi sighed out, her lanky frame slumping as the frantic panic melted off her features.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm-" she stopped as Andy levelled a steady look at her. "Uh, yeah, okay. Morning Andy." 

Andy nodded, offering her an apple from the fruit bowl by the till which Lizzi looked at longingly for a moment before shakily shaking her head and pulling out a high energy breakfast bar with a small shrug. 

"Still on the diet," she smiled, dancing round the back of the counter to the back and shedding one of the many layers that swaddled her frame, followed shortly by Mr. Day carrying a vase of old flowers needing to be replaced. 

Andy turned to the till and started counting out the change for the day, not noticing that the cafe door had opened again and someone had started to wonder through her cafe. 

She only realised she was no longer alone when the figure stood not two feet from her, leaning on the counter. When she glanced up, her face froze and her hands turned stiff with surprise. 

It was a monster. A skeleton monster to be precise, although not like any skeleton Andy had ever seen before. He was clearly alive; he was breathing. Andy could see this with the gentle rise and fall of his chest under the puffed up jacket he wore. His face was also different from a regular skeleton. It was rounder, softer looking and much more expressive with a huge grin and large, shadowed eye-sockets narrowed into a squint. Out of the darkness there, two large, circular lights shone, down turned and examining Andy's shirt. 

It took her a few moments to look past her surprise and confusion to realise he was reading the name badge on her shirt. 

In small and rather squished writing, it read:  _Hello, is it tea you're looking for?_

The customer's smile broadened at this, the strange lights in his sockets flickering up from his inspection to meet Andy's assessing gaze, only to falter there, smile fading slightly. Andy's hands began to twitch as she met his eyes. She supposed it only fair he stared. He probably got enough of it himself. She did have a peculiar look to her with one eye a deep, dark, almost black, brown and the other misted over with a cloudy blue. 

Andy looked away, uncapping her black marker pen and grabbing one of the white disposable cups she kept handy by the till. 

** You look like you have a latte on your mind. **

The eye lights flickered from the cup to Andy and back again, then his shoulders juddered slightly and he started to chuckle. 

"...heh. heh heh," he snorted quietly "didn't you use that latte pun on the board? im getting a real feeling of deja- _brew_  here." 

Andy's eyes widened and, for a moment, a small smile graced her features as she met the monster's glowing gaze, that is until the bustling whirlwind of Lizzi burst into the moment by tripping over her own legs and spilling coffee beans all over the floor behind her. 

Andy jumped at the sudden noise, spinning around sharply, then made a move to help her, but Lizzi was already waving her off with a hundred 'sorry's and assurances that she had this which quickly trailed off into a goggling silence as she looked up and caught sight of the new customer. Andy looked back at the monster, taking note of the uneasy tenseness to his shoulders as he took in Lizzi's surprise. Andy rolled her eyes, handing him a little menu with a picture of a koala holding a teabag and the words 'we make' at the top of it and 'tea' at the bottom. 

It took him a moment to put it together, eyes flickering to and from both the menu and her, but Andy found it worth the wait when the snort burst from his mouth and he slapped a skeletal hand over his grin. 

"oh god. that's good. where's this place  _bean_  all my life?" 

Andy uncapped her pen and jotted out a quick reply on her cup. 

** Bean busy with the daily grind.  **

The monster snorted again, taking the cup from her and looking down at it with a twisted grin. 

"how long' that excuse been brewing?"

"Ugh! My eyes! Damn, Andy! Warn an old man before you turn on the sunbeams would you?" snorted Mr. Day, catching sight of Andy's face as he strolled past with fresh flowers. 

Andy picked up another paper cup and lobbed it at Mr. Day's head, only to have it bounce off a table five feet away and roll on the floor with a quiet clatter that went completely unheard underneath Mr. Day's wheezy laughter. 

"Good throw bo-" he was cut off, with a hacking cough, by a coffee bean thrown down his throat with pin point accuracy. Lizzi had finished tidying the beans away and was smiling nervously from behind the counter, ducking down when Mr. Day turned his narrowed, watering eyes at her and stomped over.  

Andy wasn't watching the unfolding incident, or listening to the brewing argument. Instead she was noticing how her customer was chuckling and how his lined and shadowed eyes softened slightly as he watched the friendly(-ish) banter between Andy's employees. 

Uncapping her pen again, she quickly doodled a picture of a coffee bean figure with a police hat on a cup and wrote out:

** Take a seat. Don't resist a rest.  **

She looked up, making to gain the customer's attention again only to pause when she realised she already had it, his eyes steady on the cup as she turned it towards him.

The ringing of the door signalled an end to the puns as Andy took in the sight of the early morning grinders, ready for their coffee. 

"Triple Venti, Half Sweet, Non-Fat, Caramel Macchiato," Called out a bearded man in a blue striped suit who Andy always called Moustachiato in her head. She had long given up trying to communicate to people like him that the sizes were: small, medium and large and just rolled with the orders now. 

Scribbling down the order on a cup she tossed it to Lizzi who had rushed back to her post after hearing the hanging door bell go. Taking the money, Andy paused and winked at the monster who was still standing there (slightly to the side to avoid being too close to the decaffeinated workaholic) and staring from the cup back up to her. 

"Move it mate, there's some seats at the back. She'll bring over a drink in a tick so be patient," grumbled Mr. Day, joining Andy behind the other till to take the next order. 

The peak of the early morning rush only lasted about half an hour that day. It was usually longer than that but the recent opening of a nearby costa had been bad for business. Despite the bustle of customers, Andy managed to quickly place a dark mug of her favourite Excelsa bean coffee before the monster. She bounced away as he looked at what she had written on it in one of her chalk pens, her eyes sparkling as she heard his breathy chuckle. 

** Can you  _handle_  this? **

Later on, when the rush of customers abated, she was disappointed to find the coffee left almost untouched by an empty chair. But a note on a napkin by it read:  

_sorry cant handle it_

_coffee goes straight through me_

For a long moment, Andy simply stared at the badly drawn doodle of a skeleton with a splodge of coffee beneath it. Then she tucked it into the pocket of her apron and returned to work. 


	2. Chapter 2

* * *

 

It wasn’t until a few days later that Andy saw the monster again. 

She had been sitting in the curve of the bay-window with a pile of pay slips balanced on her knees, when she spied a blue-hooded figure hesitating at the door. She had been blankly staring at them through the frosted edges of the glass for a while, wondering whether she should muster up the energy to open the door, when the figure stepped back far enough into the pale sunlight to allow her to catch a glimpse of  _his_ smile. 

Without a thought, Andy dropped the paperwork and scrabbled for her trusty chalk pen, popping the cap and quickly turning to the window. Her eyes flickered back to the monster, confirming he was indeed still dithering out there, before she started to fill the glass with backwards lettering. 

** To the left: Nice drinks. ** ** Ahead: not sure, maybe bears?  **

Andy's hand froze as she caught sight of someone standing behind the glass, peering through the rounded letters to her face. She glanced down and met the skeleton's gaze for a moment, then tore it away and back to the glass, writing out:

** Wouldn't risk it if I were you.   **

Andy heard a muffled laugh from behind the glass and looked down, only to find no one there. Her disappointment was short lived however as the hanging doorbell jingled and called her attention to the short skeleton curiously peering over the counter. 

"hey," he said, giving her a nod which Andy quickly returned as she quickly made her way behind the bar. There was a beat of silence. 

"...the weather outside is un _bear_ able."

Andy's lips quirked slightly and, picking up a cup, she gave her response:

** I think it's a brew-tiful day outside.   **

The corners of her lips turned down slightly when the monster didn't laugh at her joke, instead he just stared at the cup in his hands, grip tight and shoulders tense.  

Slowly, gently, she lifted the cup from his hands and put it to the side, instead picking up a new one and scrawling: 

** Since you can't  _bear_  coffee, can I offer you something else?   **

The monster relaxed slightly, eye lights refocusing and flickering up to the large menu Andy had chalked on the wall. 

"well, most human food and drink doesn't really work for monsters like me..." he trailed off, noticing the soft droop in Andy's shoulders and looking conflicted for a moment. "uh- but, if you got any ketchup, I'd really relish it."

** That's pawsitively the worst pun I've heard all day.   **

"...i'll have to do bear-ter then won't i?" He murmured with a smile as he read the cup. 

Andy nodded sagely, taking back the cup from him to fill it full of ketchup sachets and wrote:

** Good luck ;)  **

 

* * *

 

Lizzi sighed softly, picking up the discarded paperwork from the window seat and watching as Andy 'chatted' with the monster customer.

"…She looks happy," she murmured to Mr. Day who had propped himself up against the open fridge with a smoothie in one hand and a cheep paperback in the other. 

"How can you tell?" He snorted, not even bothering to look up from his book. 

"... She… just looks happy somehow," was all Lizzi could say, shrugging slightly as she continued to watch them. 

"Bet you a twenty he won't last a month," Mr. Day sighed, finally looking up from his book to squint at the two. “No interfering or it’s off.”

Lizzi was silent for a moment, eyes flickering from Andy's curiously steady gaze and immobile hands to the monster who was reading one of her coffee cups with a carrying laugh. 

"Okay, you’re on." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My chapter sizes are seriously inconsistent for this fic. I don't know what it is. Usually my chapters are quite consistent at around 2000-4000 words. I may update a bit more frequently if the chapters are small to make up for it xxx


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Teeny tiny chapter here. I'll do another one soon, probably early on Sunday

* * *

 

"y'know i dont think i ever introduced myself." 

Andy glanced down from the stepladder she was balanced on, one hand holding a lightbulb and the other wrapped firmly around the metal railing. Her monster customer was staring up at her from one of the squishy sofa chairs which she was sure belonged in the star-studded back area, near the bookshelves. 

He was slouched comfortably in it, his head propped up by the back cushion and legs sprawled out over the carpet in an ungainly manner. 

Andy wondered briefly whether someone had moved the chair, before she was distracted again by her customer speaking. 

"i mean i know you're called andy. gramps and the blond girl's always calling you that... was just wonderin' if it's short for anything."

Andy considered this for a moment and nodded, only to hesitate when the guy looked up at her expectantly before blinking and turning his head away as if slightly disappointed by something... 

_.._. _Ah_. 

Andy slid down the ladder, hands and feet loosely skimming over the metal as she dropped to the ground. 

She turned to her customer who was suddenly stood up not a foot from her with arms outstretched as if to catch her. His eye lights were barely visible and sweat beaded at his brow. 

"uh, wasn' that dang-"

He stopped short when Andy's lightbulb-free hand was held out before him. He gazed at it dubiously. 

Andy, in turn, stared intently and considerately at her monster customer as she made her decision and opened her mouth. 

"Andre-a. But. You can. Call me. Andy." 

He did a double take at the slurred and stilted voice that came from her mouth but the grin on his face was unreal and Andy couldn't help but softly smile in return, the reserve in her eyes melting into something _almost_ like affection as he lifted his arm in turn. 

"Sans," he said, putting his hand in hers. 

There was a loud ' ** _parp_** ' noise and Andy felt her lips part to let out a short, laughing gasp as she twisted their hands and inspected the plastic trapped between them. 

She looked up again, just catching Sans's eyes flickering up from their joined hands to her face as she chidingly shook her head. 

"hey it made you laugh," he chuckled, still not letting go of the hand. 

Andy conceded this with a shrug and finally retracted her hand, climbing back up the ladder. 

Sans stayed within catching distance the whole time. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decided to upload a day early, these two chapters are very short! The next one is slightly longer, but after that they should be bigger I think

* * *

 

"I'd like my tuna sandwich without mayo, I'm a vegan." 

Andy raised her eyebrows at the rake-thin woman standing before her, slowly nodding in confused disbelief before catching a hold of herself, shaking her head and pointing at the sign to her right:

** Sorry, we can't change the sandwiches. Those little guys need to be loved for who they are.  **

There was a picture of a sandwich with over-the-top sparkly eyes and a hopeful little smile under this. 

The lady sniffed disdainfully at Andy's handiwork and turned back to her. "This is awful service! You can't even be bothered to  **tell**  me you're too lazy to make my sandwich vegan! I'm not coming here again!" And with that she stomped out of the cafe, leaving her unpaid full-fat milk latte on the counter. 

Andy sighed and fell back against the back counter, her fingers drumming a sharp beat on her arms. 

" _’vegan’_ huh? that sorta thing usual?" asked a familiar voice. 

Andy felt her irritation drain away somewhat as Sans pulled up a stool by the coffee bar and give her a nod. 

She returned it with one of her own and gave a 'you-win-some-you-loose-some' kinda shrug then leaned forward to tap the sandwich sign.  

"...jeez you must have a lot of that to need to make a sign about it... those poor sandwiches," he half chuckled, watching Andy closely as she nodded and shrugged again. 

"Get them. Delivered. Can't change."

"Hah! Sandwiches are the least of it, mate," scoffed Mr. Day as he dished up another panini for his customer, a woman with a maroon headscarf and a solemn expression, who was sat down a few seats away from Sans. 

"Customers are such weirdos sometimes I swear." Mr. Day sighed, unheading to the fact he was technically talking to a customer. "You wonder how they survive day to day life. I once had a guy order a coffee in a chilled pint glass. Never mind the fact we don’t bloody well have pints here. He was asking for a  _hot_  coffee in a  _chilled_  glass. “It tasted better that way” he said. Had the rudding nerve to get angry when I asked if glass shards taste good to him too.”

"that can't be for real," Sans scoffed lightly, watching as Andy gave a lopsided smirk and nodded, holding out a paper cup.  

** He asked to talk to the manager when Mr D called him a moron. I promise it was real.  **

"Remember that time with the Morris dancers?" Lizzy quietly chipped in, returning to the counter with a pile of dirty mugs. "I've never seen a coffee shop clear out so fast."

Andy shuddered slightly and waved her away as Sans started chuckling. 

"That wasn't as bad when you tried that open mic thing with the surprise Christian rock guy," mused Mr. Day. 

"christian rock?" Sans enquired curiously. 

Mr. Day slowly looked down at him with what could only be described as an evil grin, which Sans met dead on with his own patented Cheshire smile. 

"Girl! Get me my iPhone!" He called to Lizzi, only for Andy to swat at him with a tea towel and shake her head at Lizzi as she made to go to the back. 

"...y'know i used to work in a hotdog stand," Sans confided to Andy as the others went back to work. "had a few weird customers too. there was this one monster, she was so obsessed with the ‘dogs that she had me make her a huge one which she stood on all the time. wanted her own hotdog stand i suppose."

Andy sat down across from Sans with a warm glint in her eyes, grabbing a new cup and not noticing the way he watched her as wrote: 

** She mustard loved hotdogs. **

"...heh, yeah she did. much more than folks up here."

He went a little quiet after that, looking down at his hands for a few moments before looking up and blinking with surprise. 

"we having a staring competition or somethin' And'?"

Without looking away, Andy scrawled something down on a cup and handed it to him. 

He looked down to read it. 

** I win **

"that's cheatin'" he started to laugh, only to fall silent when he looked back up and saw her grinning at him, lips parted softly over her slightly wonky teeth. 

"...best outta three?" He asked. 

**You're on!  **said Andy's cup. It went unread for the rest of that morning. 


	5. Chapter 5

* * *

 

"Hey Andy, there's a-uh- a _customer_ asking for you," called out Rachel, one of the part-time, late evening staff, with an overly smiley tone. 

Andy jumped up from her laptop, quickly, but carefully closing it before quickly making her way out to the front, waving for the slightly stressed looking Rachel to have her break. 

She looked out, confused when she saw no one there.  

"hey."

Andy jumped and span around, seeing Sans leaning next to the door to the back which she had just come through, brow bones raised as he took in her surprise. 

"i was standing right here, you walked past me." 

Andy waved a hand over left eye unblinkingly.  A look of dawning comprehension fell on Sans's face. 

"so no sight there at all?" he asked curiously. Andy shook her head, pointing a finger to the coffee bar where she quickly pulled out a stool for him and turned on the cappuccino machine. 

He watched as Andy pulled out a plain mug, a long- rather pointed- teaspoon and a tub of coco power, swirling up the mixture from the machine into the mug and bulking up the froth on top. 

With deft movements of her hands, she spiralled the mix of white and brown with pointed end of the spoon, gently bringing it across to form soft, lilting lines.  She paused, feeling the stare on her back and looked up at Sans, making a soft tutting noise as she shifted and blocked his view with her back. Sans smiled at this, shaking his head softly as he watched the gentle movements of her hands, peeping out from behind her slender arms, and the slow sway of her blue, knee-length dress. 

She turned towards him and he found himself staring into her eyes again, flickering from dark, earthy brown to misted and opaque. His own eyes trailed down there, taking in the red lines that zig-zagged both down and up from that point, before a soft cough distracted him. 

Andy pushed over her creation for him to see, eyes crinkling when he gave a loud, chuckling snort. 

There was a small image of an unhappy mug with a speech bubble full of a multitude of large symbols and exclamation marks, and looping words underneath it reading: 

** Bitter coffee don't give a frap.   **

She pulled the drink back as the chuckles died down, bringing it up to her lips to take a long sip, watching her new friend over it. 

Sans grinned at her, but it seemed a little distracted somehow. Andy watched him patiently, slowly drinking her cappuccino, until he seemed to finally ready to say whatever he wanted to say. 

"...not to be nosy," he started, tapping the nasal cavity in his skull, "but can i ask how that happened?" 

Andy's half smile at the pun seemed to freeze on her face for a moment as his eyes shifted to the scar running across her damaged eye, before she suddenly jutted out her chin and looked out the window with a mulish expression. 

There was a long silence in which Sans quietly waited, carefully still, as if hesitant to move. 

"...hey, it's fine, not my business so no  _skin off my back,_ " Sans murmured, dropping his hands from the table with a shrug and leaning back.  

Andy blinked and looked around, as if suddenly remembering Sans was there. She groaned softly as she scratched the back of her head in an irritable way, jostling and bouncing the thick waves there. Andy motioned for him to close the distance again. She took several short breaths as he hesitantly did, opening and closing her mouth minutely and thinking about what she was going to say. 

"I was… foolish. Got in. A car. Crash,” she told him, her slurred, high pitched voice fluctuating to a low and heavy tone halfway through. She huffed quietly, clearly irritated with her own words. "Eye wasn't. Worst of. It." 

"oh." 

“It’s. Called. Dysarth. Ria,” Andy added on, waving her hand over her mouth and throat. “I was. Lucky. It’s mild. Could be. Much worse." Andy shrugged, looking down at her hands again which were now tapping a steady beat on the wooden table top. She focused on the sound of it, the world around her dimming as her digits hit the wood and her blue fingernails slowly danced along the grain.  

A sound distracted her from her soft musings, a light echo to the movement of her slender fingers. That odd sound was there for a while until her eyes finally rose from the movement of her own fingers. She looked across the table and saw a pair of skeletal hands tapping along with her. She eyed them for a moment, stilling her hands and watching them as they stopped. She started again, they started again, she stopped, they stopped. She felt her lips quirk up slightly and made to tap her fingers once more only to lift up her hands and hear the aborted clatter from Sans. She looked up at him as he let out a breathy chuckle. 

"Thanks... a latte," She told him, the muscles in her lips feebly twitching up into her usual half smile at that jaw breaking grin of his. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry for the slight delay in updating. Was going to do an update earlier this week but I've come down with something, still in the process of recovery but I've got enough energy to put this up now

* * *

 

“SUNSHIIIIINE!”  

Sans and Andy blinked twice, their conversation forgotten as they turned to the front door where Lizzi had skidded onto her knees and was in the process of getting her face licked off by the most excitable dog to have ever graced a cafe. Andy gave an amused sigh as she watched the little white chihuahua almost vibrate out of this plane of existence. 

Mr. Day, who was connected to the buzzing canine by means of a barbie pink leash, glared up at the ceiling as if it had personally offended him. 

“Get away from the damn dog, idiot. She’s already set to piss herself.”

Lizzi ignored Mr. Day, instead scratching the dog behind its ears, rubbing her face against her fur and cooing out non-sensical high pitched squeals. Mr. Day looked over at Andy with a tired expression as if asking for help but Andy just gave a lopsided grin. 

“Fat lot of good you are boss,” he grunted before picking up the yipping dog with one hand and gently shoving Lizzi’s face away with the other. 

“so, a chihuahua called sunshine huh?” Sans’s grin grew when Mr. Day looked over to him with a flat glare. 

“My bloody son-in-law decided to do a surprise trip to Australia with my daughter. Could have clued me in after the last time he did this but _no._ Now I’m stuck again with this hyperactive rat for a week.” 

“What’s the occasion?” Lizzi asked, leaning round Mr. Day, trying to get into petting range of ‘Sunshine’ again. 

Sunshine started panting frantically, trying to wriggle out of Mr. Day’s firm grip to get petted by the lovely lady again. 

“It’s her birthday. Now shove off,” Mr. Day glowered at Lizzi and angled himself away again, facing Andy now. “It alright if I keep her in the back? She goes nuts if she’s left alone too long.”

Andy hummed, looking at the gormless little dog, then back up to her rather tired looking employee. She gave a what the hell shrug and nodded, much to Mr. Day’s relief and Lizzi’s unbridled joy. 

When Sunshine started barking a few minutes later, Andy started to regret her decision. 

“the little ones are always the noisiest, huh?” Sans commented with a teasing grin as Andy lay her head down on the counter and groaned. 

Distantly, Andy could hear Mr. Day yelling at Lizzi to back away from the dog and do her damn job. Andy didn’t pay it much mind though, instead giving Sans a sad look which only made him chuckle.

“nothing i can do And’. little things just like being loud sometimes. my bro was the same when he was a kid. still loud even now to be honest.” 

“Pap. Yrus. Right?” Andy asked, making Sans blink twice before smiling.

“yup,” he nodded with a warm look in his eyes. “was the quietest, shyest little babybones you could imagine, up til he was ‘bout four, i think. then his volume control went nuts and it never went down.” 

Sans was staring at his hands with distant but soft eyes, as if he was seeing something else there instead. Andy didn’t say anything, simply watching and waiting until Sans’s small smile grew back into his usual grin and he glanced up with an embarrassed glow on his cheek bones. Andy continued to silently watch him but this time with a little smile curling at the corners of her lips. 

“... uh,” Sans coughed, eyelights flickering to the side then back onto Andy’s face. “day said he’s had the dog round before then?”

Andy rolled her eyes with emphasis, picked up a cup and started scribbling. 

** Yeah. Last time it was for only one day he was in and it was my day off so I didn’t have to listen to the barking. This  _always_  happens round his kid’s birthday.   **

“would’ve thought they’d want their pet with them, or their dad,” Sans muttered after reading the cup, scratching the back of his head. 

** Some people want to go out places for celebrations and can’t take their pets with them. Sometimes they don’t always want their family either, if there’s trouble there.  **

“…huh. that’s the complete opposite of my bro then. every time a birthday comes around, he likes being in the coolest place he can think of: our house.”

Andy gave a soft chuckle. 

** When was his last birthday?   **

“uhh... ‘bout two months before we got up here, i think? know his next one though. it’s one month, three weeks and four days away, or so he keeps saying.”

Andy shook her head with amusement, picking up a few coffee cups and putting them in the dishwasher as Sans started talking about what he was planning on getting his little brother this year. 

It was only as Sans started rambling about Papyrus’s love of superhero figures and how hard it was to find normally posed ones, that Andy finally interrupted Sans with a new cup. 

** When’s your birthday?   **

Sans fell silent, staring at the cup, brow scrunched up in thought, almost like he was trying to remember but for some reason didn’t quite want to. Andy wasn’t sure why this question caused Sans to react like this but she was leaning over to take the cup back when Sans finally spoke. 

“...in about four months.”

Andy nodded but didn’t say anything else about it. Instead she held up a finger in a ‘one minute’ motion, and left the bar. Sans turned around as she left, eyelights flickering from the door she had walked through to the empty chairs that littered the shop. The only sound to be heard, beyond the distant sound of yapping, was the faint jazzy strum of a guitar coming from the small speakers lining the room. The music was always quiet here, only noticeable when the conversation lulled or when not in good company.

It wasn’t often that Sans noticed the music.

The sound of yipping suddenly started to grow progressively louder and Sans looked back over to see Andy with a pained frown on her face and a extremely excitable dog in her hands. He couldn’t help but laugh. 

Andy shook rolled her eyes good-naturedly and walked up to Sans, dumping the little yippy fur ball in his lap. Sunshine proceeded to squeal out even more barks, jumping up and down as she tried to map out Sans’s face with her tongue. Andy choked out a broken little laugh as Sans tried in vain to calm the little creature down.

It wasn’t to be. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When doing research on dysarthria, one piece of advice on handling it was to keep the background noise as reduced as possible. Hence Andy playing the music very quietly. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/dysarthria/


	7. Chapter 7

* * *

 

"See you Monday, Andrea," called out Rachel. Andy blinked up at the relatively new, bubbly and sociable girl who she still hadn't quite warmed up to yet. Never-the-less, Andy still waved her off with a smile before turning back to her paperwork. 

Draining the dregs of her cappuccino, Andy pulled out a balance statement and started to tap her fingers to a steady beat. Under her breath, she gave a stilted curse against the Costa gods, and pushed herself away from the paperwork to fix herself another drink. 

However, she was stopped halfway to the cappuccino machine when she caught sight of something in the corner of her eye. Turning slowly to look out of the front windows, Andy spotted a familiar figure reading her sign board. 

Slowly, she left the coffee bar and unlocked the front door, wincing as the freezing night air hit her bare arms. 

She was right. It was Sans. He stood, unmoving, by the sign, gazing down at it with distant eyes, as if he wasn’t really seeing it. Andy's eyebrows rose as she took the sight of him in, taking note of how oddly he was dressed. There was no squishy blue hoodie, no fluffy slippers or unlaced trainers, nothing warm. Instead he only had a simple white t-shirt on and his usual shorts, revealing his broad bony arms and bare, skeletal feet. 

"...Hey," she murmured, standing hesitantly by the door, as she watched his blank eyed gaze. 

Slowly, the lights in his sockets grew back and he shook his head minutely, turning to Andy with widening eyes. 

"uh. hey. sorry, i was just..." he trailed off, seemingly not exactly sure what he was doing. 

Andy didn't say anything, instead stepping back and holding the door open in invitation. 

Sans looked from Andy to the door then back again, his expression growing gentle for a moment before he shook his head slightly and offered a large, forced grin. 

"uh. it's fine. i was just going on a walk and-"

He was cut off by the unimpressed look Andy sent him and sighed, shoulders softly slumping. 

"thanks."

 Andy nodded, walking back into the café. She took down two seats from the counter and pulled out a bottle of Heinz tomato ketchup she'd bought the other day, popping it in front of a somewhat surprised Sans. 

"thanks," he murmured again as Andy poured herself a quick, simple coffee and sat opposite him with a pack of cards. 

He raised his brow bones but didn't say anything as she dealt out the cards and then scribbled on a cup. 

** I once worked in an office before I took over the family business. After I finished my coffee every day, I liked to show it to the IT guy and tell him I successfully installed Java. He hated me.  **

"heh. you’re gonna mocha me laugh" Sans returned, not with a laugh but with a small twitch of his strained grin. He picked up the cards, blinking as he saw faces looking back at him instead of the numbers and suits he'd expected. "happy families?" He asked incredulously. 

Andy nodded and picked up a card as she watched him bark out a startled laugh at the strangeness of it all. 

"y'know... my bro likes these sorts of games. almost had a full collection of one of these back in the underground. now he's got two, and 'bout every other game and puzzle you can imagine," he told her, shuffling the cards in his hands with a warm smile. 

**He never gets _board_  of them? **Andy's cup read. 

Sans's smile grew a little more and he shook his head. "nah, he recently got into the computer side of it as well. that was a real game changer, let me tell you."

**Let's stop the game punning before we get too graphic,** Andy wrote with a soft, slanted twist to her lips, eyes mapping the dimples of Sans’s grin as he read it.  

"hah! i'm  _game_  for a topic change." 

He ended up beating Andy at happy families in the end, citing that it was child's play as he held up the Tuckin family's son before her eyes. Andy noticed he didn't touch the ketchup once during the whole night but said nothing about it as she finally waved him off with eyes heavy enough to match his.  

She didn't go upstairs to her flat though, instead cracking out her laptop, opening a search engine and typing in: 

** Magical drinks supplier.  **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since this is a short one I'll either update again tomorrow or on Wednesday :)   
> Hope you're enjoying xxx


	8. Chapter 8

* * *

 

Andy sighed gustily, closing another tab on her laptop and scrolling to another site. 

"Five day teadox?" asked Jay Burrows, the part timer, as he dropped a box of earl grey on the table. "I thought you didn't like those things, my dad's got some contacts in a diet tea org if you want to get into it."

Andy shook her head, closing the tab and clicking a short, bright yellow nail on what she had typed in the search bar. 

"Magical tea suppliers?! Geez Andy I didn't know you were into the occult!"  he squeaked, his short curly hair bobbing as he stood ramrod straight in surprise. 

"She's not, you numpty. She's been spending the whole weekend looking for monster friendly merchandise for her little cru-" Mr. Day was cut short in his berating by a well aimed coffee bean and a series of hacking coughs. "Where- where the hell is that girl?! I'm-  ** _hughk_** \- I'm gonna kill her!"

Jay ignored Mr. Day's series of echoing stomps, instead turning to Andy with an enthusiastic gleam in his eyes. 

"Ooh! You just want to get monster customers. Well, that's okay then," Jay grinned, picking his cargo back up from Andy's table, happy that his employer wasn't going to become a scary witch or something. "I bet you business will pick right back up if you get some monsters in here!" 

Andy didn't say anything, simply staring at her laptop, but her fingers had started drumming tensely on the mouse pad. Jay didn't notice this though and turned away with a happy whistle to continue with his work- only for his whistle to cut short. 

"Hey Andy! It's working! You got a monster!" 

Andy looked up and around, brow furrowed in confusion which quickly melted away into something else entirely as she took in Sans looking up at her toweringly tall employee with an uneasy squint. 

"Hey, do you know where Andy can get magical tea? She's trying to get more monster customers like you!" he blurted out excitedly, not taking any note of Sans's personal space as he loomed over him. 

Andy slammed her chair back and grabbed Jay by one of his protruding ears, ignoring his whining complaints as she dragged him through to the back and fixed him with a steady, disapproving glare. 

"What did you do this time, Jay?" Lizzi asked from underneath Mr. Day's arm in a secure headlock. Mr. Day just rolled his eyes and continued to hold Lizzi captive while sitting on the sofa with his book. 

"Uh- not sure?" replied Jay, scratching the back of his head. 

Andy just pinched her nose then clicked her fingers at Mr. Day who sighed, tossing aside his paperback, and stood up to wrap his free arm around Jay's neck, holding him captive in a second headlock. 

As Andy turned and left, Lizzi turned in Mr. Day's grip to level a commiserating look at Jay. 

 

* * *

 

Andy paused as she re-entered the front of the cafe, quickly turning her head to the left and right to cover her blind spot, but there was no Sans. 

"...hey." 

Andy jolted and span around to see Sans sitting at the top of the stepladder, which she could have sworn wasn't up when she had left. She looked up at him as he turned his gaze up to the painted ceiling, eyes flickering from the white fluffy clouds to the golden lines of light coming off an unmoving sun. 

"i know a lotta monsters who'd like this place. sun and puns? they'd go mad for it, spend a lotta gold..." his tone was painfully soft and thoughtful as he slowly tilted his head down to look at Andy. "gotta ask though... is that why you've been so eager to have me here?" 

For a moment, it looked as if he had no eyes; nothing but blackness looked out at her. Andy stared straight back up at him, unblinkingly. The moment passed and the lamp like lights in Sans's face reappeared, turning away from her as he looked back at the sunrise muriel. 

"... i mean it's not like i'm bothered of anything. could’ve done with a bit of a heads u-" he cut off as a cup scuffed the bottom of one of his slippers, falling uselessly a few feet away. 

Andy scowled at the cup and picked it up to throw it up at him again. Sans watched again as it hit one of the lower rungs of the ladder and spiralled off behind the counter. A small puff of amusement escaped through his teeth as Sans blipped down to sit on the counter, watching as the woman scrabbled with the cup and made ready to chuck it again. Sans plucked it up out of her grasp, ignoring the soft yelping sound of surprise she made as he read the side of it. 

**I was looking for something to serve a friend. **

Sans read it, looked at Andy and then read it again. 

"what friend?" he asked. 

Andy levelled him a look which spelt out the word ‘dumbass’ without her even having to write it down.  

"oh." Said Sans. 

There was a long silence as they stared at each other. 

"oh," he murmured again, smile quirking to the side and eye lights growing large. "heh." 

 

* * *

 

Later on, after waving goodbye to Sans and closing up the cafe, Andy found her computer had somehow been loaded onto the Royal Horticultural Society website, specifically a post by someone called...  _Asgore Dreamur? Wait, the king?_  

Andy frowned confusedly and skimmed what he had written, her eye freezing and lighting up as she read the words: Golden flower tea. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a very quick update here before I dash off on a mini holiday :) will be back and putting a new chapter up on Monday xxx

* * *

 

Getting in contact with Asgore Dreamur proved difficult, mainly in that all the emails to his official account were bounced back and that, when she tried for the phone route, Jay kept getting confused about what he was asking for, Mr. Day kept getting hung up on and Lizzi was so nervous and awful at talking on the phone that the person on the other side could barely understand her. 

In the end, she gave up with the formal route and sent him a message on twitter (having identified the correct one out of the thousands by using his RAS account), asking whether he would be interested in supplying tea for her cafe. 

She hadn't really expected to get a reply. Certainly not any time soon. His page was so full of monster and king related questions and messages that Andy had little hopes he'd spot hers, but he did and boy had his response surprised them all. 

Mr. Day squinted at the screen, Jay bubbled to himself excitedly, jumping up and down, and Lizzi was looking very confused. 

"He wants to meet us and give us tea?" she asked. 

"Sell, but at the price he's offering it might as well be giving," Mr. Day murmured. "This has got to be a hoax, right? He's a bloody king, what's he want to sell us dried flowers for?!" He frowned at Andy as he jabbed a crooked finger at the screen. 

Andy didn't really notice this, there was a smile growing on her face which made her employees fall silent. 

"...Suppose it can't hurt to try," huffed Mr. Day, looking away. 

"Yeah! Let's get some monster tea!" Exclaimed Jay, now bouncing on the back of Andy's chair. 

"This is so exciting," smiled Lizzi, not taking her eyes off Andy's face as she started typing out a private message. 

** This is posi-tea-vly the best news we have had all week! Thank you,  Mr Dreemur.  Where and when would you like to meet to go over this? Here are my contact details...   **

"Why are you punning with a king?!" Lizzi screeched out and lurched forward as if she could stop the inevitable. 

Mr. Day facepalmed and Jay started laughing as Lizzi flailed in front of the 'message sent' screen. Andy just sat back and watched them with a content smile. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RAS- Royal Agricultural Society


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got a much bigger chapter for you today :) hope you enjoy
> 
> Warnings: a bit of blood and a TON of fluff

* * *

 

Sans’s chest rose and fell, the pages of the book he had been reading rustling and crinkling faintly with every soft inhale and exhale. The sound of his breathing was only on the cusp of hearing, almost drowned out by the gentle patter of rain against the storefront windows and the quiet thrum of a guitar coming from the café speakers.

Andy stared, her fingers frozen, hovering above the keyboard of her laptop.

“Andy!” 

Andy turned around to face Lizzi, quickly placing a finger on her lips and a stern look on her face. 

Lizzi blinked rapidly, stopping short and almost dropping the bag of beans she held, then looked around, gaze finally settling on Sans as he slept on a sofa ten feet away, head cushioned on an arm rest and legs tucked in underneath him. Lizzi stared then looked back at Andy, whose stern expression had melted away into something else as she looked over too.

“Oh. Uh. Sorry,” Lizzi blushed, edging back and putting the apparently split bag of coffee beans on the counter for Andy to look at. Andy quietly shut her laptop, using her thumbs to cushion the lid as it closed, frowning as she looked closer at the bag and saw the small, bitten holes in the paper packaging. Within moments, she had a post-it note in hand and had stuck it to Lizzi’s chest.

**Text Mr D to be on the lookout for mice when he comes in tomorrow. Throw this out and any others you find.**

Lizzi nodded, sending one last glance between Sans and Andy before quietly shuffling away.

Andy leant over the bar, massaged her brow and glared down at the pattern of wood grain beneath her. Mice were the _last_ thing she needed right now.

A soft, muffled giggle, dragged Andy up and away from her sour reflections as she glanced up to see a little five-year-old boy grinning and snorting to himself as he stared up at Sans. Andy frowned and glanced around to see a woman with a similar shade of wavy black hair, simply watching as the boy walked up to Sans with hands outstretched.

Andy looked back at the boy as he leaned up, a sticky finger aiming for one of Sans’s eyesockets and she _moved_ , vaulting over the coffee bar to stop him, only to misjudge the distance and catch her foot on the edge of the bar, promptly crashing face first onto the floor and sending the barstools around her toppling over like dominos.

This, unsurprisingly, woke Sans up.

“what the-”

Andy groaned, unwilling to move from what must have been the most graceless fall she had ever experienced. With her left leg and arm tangled in a fallen stool and right foot still caught on the bar, she looked like she had been doing an upside down set of splits while hugging a stool like a teddy bear. She was extremely glad that she wore thick leggings underneath her checkered skirt today (what with the cold weather and all), but was still fully prepared to hear laughter.

“andy! fuck, are you okay darlin’?!”

Distantly Andy could hear a gasp from the child’s mother as she ushered her son away from the swearing. Sans didn’t even seem to notice, instead kneeling by Andy’s side and gently helping her detangle her limbs from the barstool and sit up.

Andy glanced up at Sans sheepishly.

“shit,” said Sans, staring at her nose. Andy blinked, bewildered, and raised her hand up to her nose, only for it to come away covered in red.  

“c’mon, let’s deal with that,” Sans smiled. It wasn’t his normal smile, that was for sure. It was larger and more fixed, like a real skeleton smile.

Andy didn’t focus on it for too long though. The pain had started to set in. She brought her hand up to her nose, tenderly running her fingers over it. It didn’t feel too bad but the throbbing sting of it was still enough to bring tears to the corners of her eyes. She quickly rubbed them off however when she saw the concerned look on Sans’s face.

“M’kay,” she murmured in a muffled, nasal voice, waving him off. “Just a. Nose. Bleed.”

“yeah, i’m no expert but i know blood’s s’posed to stay on the inside,” Sans returned, smile still too large for his face as he guided Andy towards the sofa, one hand firmly on the small of her back and the other gently resting on her left arm.

Andy sighed, embarrassed, not really putting up a fight as she was made to sit down and watch as Sans gave her one last look over before quickly making his way behind the bar to where she kept the first aid kit.

“uh, what exactly d’you need for a nosebleed?” Sans asked, opening the little bag and rummaging through the collection of plasters and antiseptic wipes.

“Just tis- tissues. And time. Need to. Lean. Forward,” Andy said, voice warped both in pitch and clarity as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Don’t. Want to. Swallow.”

Sans stilled and looked up, a light dusting of blue on his cheekbones, before shaking his head and frowning down at the useless collection of plasters, leaving it open on the counter as he went in search of tissues.

Andy sighed again, glancing away as she leaned over her knees. The kid and that woman had left, adding to a long list of customers who probably wouldn’t be back again. Andy couldn’t find it in herself to be too upset about this. At least, not at the moment.

“hey, is this enough?”

Andy looked up and felt a wobbly grin form on her face at the massive mountain of tissues being held out before her.

“Thanks,” she chuckled as she grabbed a few and pinched them around her nose, looking over to see Sans stiffly sitting next to her, eyes shadowed and distant.

“Don’t. Worry,” she said, pulling Sans’s attention back to the real world. “As time. Nose by. It’ll. Stop.”

Sans stared back at her, fake smile dipping down for a moment before genuinely forming again and making the corners of his eye-sockets crinkle.

“i can’t tell if you meant to pun that or if it was an accident. either way, i’m blown away.”

“Bit too. Much. On the. Nose that.”

“damn, i’m tryin’ to think of a nose pun but i can’t sniff it out.”

Andy hummed, eyes turning to the ceiling as she thought for a moment, before looking down at Sans again with a smirk.

“I smell. A bad. Pun com- coming. On.”

“well, who nose, maybe i’ll be runny out soon.”

Andy smiled and shook her head, looking down at the new tissue she had pinched around her nose, peppered by the smaller splodges of red. A somewhat evil grin started to grow on her face.

“Th- thought. My nose. Was. Bleeding. But. Snot.” 

There was a moment of silence as Sans just stared at Andy.

“…that was gross. i love it.”

Andy couldn’t help but snort at that, wincing and laughing in equal measure as she brought the tissue up again.

They both fell silent. The guitar from the radio had faded away into a new song, something with a piano in it. It was slow and jazzy, filling the café with a relaxed atmosphere. The air felt warm, Andy could see the condensation blooming on the glass windows, obscuring the raindrops racing down across the surface.

Sans was looking at her, Andy could tell. When she looked round, he was staring at his hands, but she had felt his gaze.

Internally sighing, Andy pulled the tissue away and ran her fingers over her nose. It was throbbing still and would probably have a nasty bruise but at least it wasn’t bleeding anymore. She should get back to work. Solutions to financial woes wouldn’t magically find themselves. However, when she braced herself on her knees to stand up, a skeletal hand quickly wrapped around her wrist.

“nope.”

“ _Sans_ ,” Andy groaned, sending him a look.

“no, you’re resting. i will lie on you if you don’t.”

Andy snorted (and winced) again, shaking her head disbelievingly.

“well, tried to warn you.”

And that was how Andy found herself to be trapped on a sofa with Sans’s head on her lap. To be fair to Sans, he did look a bit embarrassed to be in this position, staring up at Andy with a rather shaky smile, but he wasn’t shifting an inch, even when Andy non-too-gently nudged him.

_Must be magic_ , she thought, as she felt the weight of his skull grow every time she shifted and tried to escape. She glowered down at her supposed friend. Sans just grinned back, more relaxed now, his eyes hooded and lazy, and Andy gave up, leaning back into the cushions with a huff. She would be lying if she didn’t say it was nice to just sit down like this and just listen to the rain.

Perhaps it was too nice, or too comfortable and warm, because it wasn’t that long until Andy found her head bobbing and falling back against the back of the sofa. Her eyelids fluttered and closed and she fell into a doze.

 

* * *

 

Lizzi stared at the scene before her. Bar stools were scattered across the ground, the first aid kit proudly open in the middle of the bar, and the boss was asleep with Sans comfortably curled across her lap. 

Hmm. Okay. Now, what was the best way to go about this with no one trying to kill her?

She _could_ tidy up, but that might wake Sans and would, in turn, piss Andy off. Lizzi knew Andy could sleep through a hurricane but if Sans woke up and moved, well, Andy wouldn’t be able to ignore that, and she wouldn’t be pleased if Lizzi stopped Sans from getting some shuteye.

Lizzi wasn’t stupid, she could tell that Sans hadn’t been sleeping well for a while now. Probably from even before she first met him. Even ignoring how protective Andy had been earlier over the skeleton’s nap time, the bruises under Sans’s eyes were enough of a giveaway to make Lizzi not want to wake him either. So tidying was out. Really, Lizzi should have just gone to the back and continued to look around for more evidence of mice, and maybe set out the humane traps she had found in the back, but if a customer came in, there’d be no one to serve them… and she also couldn’t resist staring at the two as they dozed together.

Andy’s arms were sprawled across the back of the sofa, her head tilted and cushioned on her right arm. Her puffy hair was covering most of her face and floating in and out with every sleepy breath. Sans was sleeping like a rock on her lap. His right cheek was squashed up against Andy’s thighs, his expression slack and mouth slightly parted. He made a soft, huffing, half-snore noise now and then, and Lizzi was certain Andy would melt into a puddle of goop if she heard it. 

Picking up Andy’s phone from behind the counter, Lizzi crept closer to the two, and quietly took a photo, certain that Andy would like this as her new background.

Lizzi didn’t know Sans that well but she knew for a fact that he made Andy happy. So Lizzi liked Sans, much more than any of the other guys who had tried it on with Andy in the past. This didn’t mean she felt any less scared when she looked up from her phone to see Sans staring back at her out of empty sockets.

There was a beat of silence.

“what are you doing?” Sans asked quietly, blinking twice. Lizzi started to breathe again, full of inexplicable relief as she saw the two star-like lights flicker back on in Sans’s eyes.

“I… I took a photo of you two for Andy,” she explained, her survival instincts instantly deciding that honesty was the best policy when it came to Sans. She held out Andy’s phone for Sans to see and somewhat successfully kept the tremor out of her hand.

Sans stared up at Lizzi’s hand then to her face as the woman blushed faintly and gave an awkward smile. He didn’t say anything, but his tight grin dipped down slightly before he glanced at the phone.

Lizzi watched as Sans’s gaze was caught by the picture, then as he slowly looked round and up at Andy who was still dozing behind him, a soft trickle of drool running down from the corner of her mouth. Lizzi felt her nerves fade away as she watched his grin soften into a small, kind smile and his eyelights grow brighter.

“You really do like her, don’t you?” she whispered. The effect was instantaneous. Sans froze, his body ridged, and his head snapped round to face her. Lizzi wouldn’t let herself feel intimidated though, even though she _really_ wanted to. Instead she knelt down in front of Sans and continued to whisper to him.

“She likes you too, you know that, right?”

Sans didn’t say anything, but he looked remarkably less scary as he continued to lay on Andy’s lap, not wanting to move and disturb her, a blue blush flooding across his face. Lizzi nodded to herself.

“She’s a nice person. She’ll be good to you. She’ll never tell you you’re not good enough, or try to change you... Andy’s not the kind to do that.”

Sans continued not to talk but his expression changed. To what, Lizzi wasn’t sure, but it felt like Sans was looking at her very intently.

“You’re a good person too,” Lizzi added on, trying to smile reassuringly but not really being sure on whether it came out right. She rubbed the back of her head awkwardly and stood up.

“…thanks.”

Lizzi paused and glanced back down at Sans who was still staring at her. She smiled, her slightly too large teeth showing and a dimple growing on her left cheek, then turned and walked back to the storage room.

There was no way she was going to stand behind the counter and awkwardly stand in silence after that. It was time to go on a mouse hunt.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Christmas!!!  
> Well, not actually but it's now December so I feel I can start getting ready for it in earnest. Hope you enjoy the Christmas flavoured chapter :D

* * *

 

“Deck the halls with boughs of holly”

“No.”

“‘Tis the season to be jolly!”

“I’m not doing it.”

“C’mon Mr. Day. All you have to do is say ‘fa’ and ‘la’,” Lizzi chided him, tossing a piece of tinsel at the man’s face.

“Girl, I am not singing.”

“You humbug,” teased Lizzi, ducking when Mr. Day chucked the tinsel back at her head.

Carefully ignoring the two of them, Andy guided her hand across the glass of the bay window, quietly delighting in the swirls of glittering silver forming beneath her touch. Slowly, she moved across the window, spinning golden snow storms and sparkling, ice frosted trees out of water-based ink and liquid chalk. It was hard to see all of the detail, what with it being so dark outside, but Andy found herself pleased with the final result.

“That looks really good, Andy,” came Lizzi’s chirping voice from behind. Andy smiled and put the final touch on the snowman holding a cup of tea. Lizzi stared at it, her impressed expression fading into contemplation.

“Wouldn’t that melt it?” She hummed, head tilted on the side.

Andy paused, considering this, then turned and annotated the snowman’s drink with the chalk:

** aet decI  **

Lizzi shook her head in grinning disbelief and turned back to her Christmas time prep. Humming thoughtfully to herself as she continued to hang up tinsel and paper snowflakes.

“When’s Jay coming?” Lizzi asked conversationally, wrapping a string of red tinsel around her neck like a feather boa.

“Still. Out with. Friends. I think,” Andy said, picking up another box of decorations to rummage through and missing Lizzi’s reaction to that. “Said he. Might join. Our. Christmas. Do later.”

Mr. Day looked round and scowled on seeing Lizzi’s downhearted expression.

“Don’t know why you even care about that numpty. He’s as oblivious as a brick and just as charming.”

“He’s _nice_ ,” Lizzi stressed, apparently unable to argue against the other points.

“He’s an idiot.”

“Be nice. Mr D,” Andy chided.

“What? I _am_ being nice. If I wasn’t I’d be calling him a half-brained, inconsiderate wan-” 

“Sans!” Proclaimed Andy suddenly, trying to drown out Mr. Day’s voice as her friend walked in through the front.

“-ker,” carried on Mr. Day regardless, briefly glancing over to Sans who had paused to watch them, before turning back to smile at an irate looking Lizzi.

Lizzi glowered at Mr. Day and put an empty cardboard box on his head.

“I’m gonna go check the stock, Andy,” Lizzi called before turning and calmly walking away.

“Stop that,” Andy said, putting down her set of pens and glancing over to Mr. Day with a disapproving expression. Mr. Day sighed, removing the cardboard box and levelling Andy with a look.

“If you stop coddling her, I will. You know she’s got piss poor taste in men.”

“It’s her. Business. Not yours.”

Mr. Day looked ready to answer back to this but quickly caught onto the dark look forming on Andy’s face. He shrugged, looking away as he started to tidy up the abandoned Christmas decorations.

“Sorry. About. That Sans,” Andy said, glancing over her shoulder to where Sans was dithering, obviously not wanting to get too close and intrude.

“s’fine,” he shrugged, slouching over to one of the bar stools. Andy followed, picking up a box of miniature Christmas cardboard cutouts on the way.

“so… christmas spirits at an all time high then?”

Andy snorted and shook her head, glancing over to where Mr. Day had been fiddling with Christmas lights for the last few minutes, staring into space. She picked up a cup.

** Give them five minutes. Mr D’s just being over protective again.  **

“thought he was alright with that tall guy,” Sans commented in a low tone. Andy looked over at Mr. Day, her expression fondly exasperated.

** He is but Ray isn’t that interested in dating and everyone knows it.  **

“oh. work romance stuff, huh? well, dunno about you but i’m gossiped out.”

Andy’s smile quirked up to the side, the uncomfortable feeling that had been freezing up her spine melting away in the warm wash of Sans’s smile.

** Fancy helping with the Christmas play list? It’s only for the weekends else we’ll go mad but I need to choose some _cracker_ ing music. **

“well i’ve always been told i’m pretty _sharp_ when it comes to music.”

Andy blinked at the choice of joke and turned the cup around to write her reply.

** No Christmas puns? **

“‘parrently i’ve been _harping_ on too much with that. my bro made me promise to go one day without ‘em and i don’t wanna get in _treble_.”

Andy smiled and shook her head. Christmas puns she could do but music puns weren’t really her forte. Instead, she focused on connecting her laptop to the speakers, randomly picking a song from the bulk download she made last year. Soon the overplayed overtures of Wham! Last Christmas started to play through the café. Mr. Day put down the Christmas lights and levelled Andy with a look that spelt out ‘NO’ in glowing strobe lights.

“lighten up,” Sans smirked, noticing the glower Andy was being put under.

“I will strike if you make me listen to pop songs, Boss. You know I will.”

Andy rolled her eyes and purposefully chose another song. Rudolf the red nose reindeer started to play, making Andy grin wolfishly when she heard Mr. Day start to growl.

“Fine. You choose. What you. Like then,” Andy said, waving her hand at the laptop before turning and leaning next to Sans against the coffee bar.

Mr. Day didn’t need to be told twice. He slouched over to the computer, scrolled through the songs and tapped at the mouse pad.

Nothing came on. Andy levelled a look at him.

“It’s just slow. Give it a minute,” Mr. Day returned, before walking back to his job of detangling the lights.

The speakers were still silent a minute later when Andy gave up with a huff and walked over to look at the laptop. Nothing had been chosen to play.

“Mr. Day!” She moaned, levelling him with a thoroughly unimpressed look.

 “Hey, you told me to choose what I like. Well there you go, it’s nothing. Literally nothing, and, if I had it my way, it’s not going to ever be anything.”

… That was a bit meaner that Andy was used to from Mr. Day. She steadily stared at him, mind rolling over his words, the tense frame to his back and the little fact that he hadn’t requested holiday leave this year. Half of her wanted to ask if he and his daughter were okay but the other half knew that she’d only be opening a can of worms that Mr. Day clearly didn’t want opened. Andy sighed and rolled her eyes, turning to Sans, looking for a similar look of exasperation, or at least some commiseration. That’s not what she saw.

Sans was staring at nothing, his hands clamped tightly onto the bar stool, his grin jagged and strange. Andy shared an alarmed look with Mr. Day who had quickly dropped the Christmas lights he had been holding and was walking towards them. 

“Sans? You o- okay?” Andy asked, quickly pulling out a stool and sitting next to him.

“… yeah. heh heh. i, uh, i’m fine.” Sans’s voice sounded distant, almost tinny, and his hands were still in a death grip on the bar stool. Andy bit her lip, edging her stool closer to Sans so that her shoulder lightly brushed his. Sans didn’t even blink.

“ _Rockin' around the Christmas tree. At the Christmas party hop.”_

The two of them looked up. Mr. Day glowered down at the laptop then forced a tired smile onto his face.

“This one’s alright,” he simply said, before turning and walking into the back of the shop.

“ _Mistletoe hung where you can see. Every couple tries to stop._ ”

Sans and Andy watched as he left then turned to glance at each other.

“ _Rockin' around the Christmas tree. Let the Christmas spirit ring. Later we'll have some pumpkin pie and we'll do some carolling_ ,” cheered the song and Andy snorted softly.

“Think we. Lost our. Christmas. Spirit.  A bit.”

“just a bit,” Sans agreed, finally loosening his death grip on the stool to self-consciously scratch at the back of his head.

“ _You will get a sentimental feeling when you hear, voices singing let's be jolly, deck the halls with boughs of holly_.”

“Well... then. Let’s get. Them back,” smiled Andy, hopping off her stool and holding out a hand for Sans. Sans stared at it, the sounds of Brenda Lee’s ‘Rocking Around the Christmas Tree’ fading into the background as he just looked at her.

Then he took her hand. Andy grinned lopsidedly and yanked him off the stool, spinning him away from the bar.

 It was, in many ways, a strange dance. The song was already half finished, and their tempo was completely off with Andy putting far too much effort into her movements, and Sans’s lacking any kind of effort whatsoever. But after that first spin, and the silly dip Andy gave, laughter started to echo through their chests and their dancing slowed into a turning spin, their hands held tight together. Soft skin on warm bone. Neither of them watched where they put their feet, neither of them took the lead. They simply moved with the music and grinned until the song faded into something new and slower.

“… _I’m dreaming of a white Christmas. Just like the ones I used to know._ ”

Andy’s tired and strained breathing was loud against the hushed crooning of Bing Crosby, but she smiled non the less and gently swung their hands with the music. Behind them, unnoticed and silent, stood Lizzi and Mr. Day, fond and tired smiles on their faces as they watched Sans laugh as Andy started to lipsinc  the song with a dramatic and overly serious expression on her face.

“ _May your days be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be white._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What happened next:  
> Mr. Day cut in with Andy, then Lizzi cut in again and stole Mr. Day so Sans and Andy could dance. Mr. Day was gruffly pleased that Lizzi didn’t bare a grudge and so he allowed this.  
> They all shared Christmas snacks and Lizzi brought a homemade Christmas biscuit tree with a hell of a lot of effort put in with the decorations. Mr. Day bought a chocolate orange, then dumped a lot of other sweets down as well and Andy bought some spider donuts for Sans. Sans brought some monster alcohol. Their night quickly deteriorated from that point in and only Sans has any memory of what happened and how everyone got home.


	12. Chapter 12

* * *

 

"You spin me right round! Baby right round!"  

Andy looked around from cleaning the espresso machine, putting down the sponge and glancing out at Jay as he wheeled across the room on The Office Chair, arms outstretched and hair bobbing furiously.

“Like a record, baby! Right round round round!” 

Andy couldn't even bring herself to get angry, she was too busy wondering how he got _The Chair_ down the stairs so easily. 

It was a clunky, awkward thing. The hulking, cracked, fake leather body of it was unbalanced and leaning backwards from all the years of reclining managers weighing down on it, making it wobble precariously as it moved. Its wheels were too small for the large metal frame they were connected to, so Jay had to constantly push at the floor in order to gain any sort of momentum. In short: it was not a chair designed for a person to wheel around on, making Jay look somewhat like a flailing, one-legged kangaroo. This was a thought that was obviously shared by the staff if the snickers were anything to go by. 

"so, you always let them goof off like this?" Sans asked across the counter with a soft grin, not looking up as he filled in another of row of a newspaper crossword.

Andy shrugged, no longer half-smiling as she gestured to the empty tables that took up most of the room, save for one bespectacled teenager in the corner who was superglued to their computer, typing at the speed of sound and blind to everything else. 

_Either a really good game, or an essay due in_ , Andy mused to herself. 

Sans sighed softly, looking around at the empty tables and forlone chairs, only to stop as he noticed Andy drumming her fingers hard against her crossed arms. 

 "...hey-"

"Andy! Come on, get out the crate board and let's race!" Jay laughed, hopping up and down on the chair until the cracked leather back was pushed up to the counter. Sans rolled his eye lights. 

"kid, with that thing, she could beat you walking." 

Jay pouted "m'not a kid. And I could so win a race with Andy, her depth perception is whacked." 

A cup bounced off Jay's face.

"dunno about that," Sans laughed, folding up his newspaper as Andy rolled up her sleeves and set about proving how good her depth perception was. 

Crate skateboard out, Andy nodded to Jay, waiting for Sans to drop the paper napkin that signalled the start. 

"ready, steady, g-woah!" 

And Andy was off, kicking out fiercely and shooting over the wooden floorboards with narrowed eyes and a faint, determined smile. 

"a-and the winner is... Andy, with Jay stuck on the first hurdle," Sans announced, wide eyes crinkling with mirth as he saw Jay puffing and huffing as he pushed at the chair, unaware that one of the wheels had a stray cup wedged in it. 

"No fair, yours is so much lighter. You need a handicap!" Jay whined. 

Andy rolled her eyes and turned to Sans with a contemplative look. 

"...why you lookin' at me like that, And’?" he asked, sweat softly beading on his forehead. 

"Sweet! Sans, you can be her handicap!" 

"wait what?" 

"Ooh! I wanna push someone too! Lizzi! Come be my race partner!" He gabbled, running off and seemingly forgetting what a handicap was. 

Sans turned to Andy, eyeing her up uncertainly. "uh, you, uh..." he trailed off, his eyes dropping down to her steady hands as she pulled out a cup and started writing, a concerned expression on her face. "nah, it's fine. i'll be your racing buddy,  _buddy_ " he murmured, not even needing to read what she had written. 

A bemused Lizzi was brought in at that moment, and they all set up at their starting places. Sans and Andy were in the ancient chair now as Jay unfortunately remembered they were supposed to have a handicap and deemed Sans lighter than Lizzi so a swap was only fair. Lizzi looked curiously pleased with this comparison if the smile she sent Jay was anything to go by. 

Sans stared thoughtfully at Lizzi, then glanced up at Andy. She shrugged. It wasn't her story to tell. 

"Three, two, one, g-agh!" cried Lizzi, almost falling off the board as she was rocketed forward. 

Surprisingly though, Andy and Sans managed to keep up. Perhaps it was the fact that Andy knew to push lower down on The Chair to keep it moving, perhaps it was Sans laughing in front of her and urging her on, or maybe it was even the weird blue glow she caught sight of from the corner of her eyes, but they were somehow starting to pull ahead. 

That is until the cafe door opened and someone walked straight onto the race track. 

"ahh!"

"Ahh!" 

"...!"

Andy dragged her feet on the floor, arm wrapped tightly across the front of the seat, over Sans's chest, as she forced the chair to stop on the smooth wooden floor. 

Sans blinked, a mere inch away from the unexpected obstacle in their race, hands slowly reaching up to pat the arm that had kept him from going flying, in befuddled thanks. 

"Sans?" Exclaimed the obstacle suddenly, getting over their shock. 

" ... ‘sup asgore." 

Andy peered out and around from the back of The Chair, double taking slightly when she caught sight of the gigantic monster towering before them. He would have made for quite the intimidating sight with his huge, pointed horns and colossal height, if it weren’t for the fact he was wearing a bright pink Hawaiian shirt. 

The race seemed to be forgotten by everyone as Jay and Lizzi jumped off the crate board and curiously gathered around. 

"Wait, is- isn’t he the king you're supposed to meet on Thursday about the tea?" Lizzi whispered to Andy, eyes wide and voice squeaky. 

"Ah, I believe it was Tuesday we agreed on... wasn't it?" Asgore questioned, making Lizzi blush furiously and hide behind Andy as she and Jay slowly shook their heads.

"Nah, it was Thursday mate, see why you mixed them up though, I've done that before,” Jay grinned. 

Asgore looked quite embarrassed and Andy found herself beckoning for him to come in. 

 "Ahem ... uh... what were you doing?"

"We were racing!" exclaimed Jay before turning to Andy with a grin "and we totally just beat you two!" 

Andy rolled her eyes and motioned for him to get back to work. 

"Huh? What's she saying?" he asked, completely clueless as Andy made shoing motions with her arms. 

Lizzi caught the rising look of irritation in Andy's eye and quickly yanked Jay by the arm to go put the box crate away.

Sans didn't seem to want to get out of The Chair by the looks of it, so they left him in it and Andy pushed him up to the bar, motioning for a bewildered Asgore to follow. He looked around curiously as they made their way to the coffee bar, eyes quickly fixing of the ceiling, taking in the blue wave of evening stars dotting a purple and yellow sky at the back of the shop, which blended into a deep, summers blue in the centre and faded into an early morning sunrise by the coffee bar. A bowl of fresh, red apples were situated by the tills with a plaque that read: 

** An apple a day keeps anyone away if you throw hard enough.  **

Asgore stared at that for a long time before turning to face the coffee shop owner who had placed a paper cup before him which read:

** Can I get you anything? I'm afraid I only have human stuff.  **

"I can both eat and drink human produce, my dear," he nodded to her, smiling faintly at the way her eyes lit up as she span around to turn on one of the many silvery machines and pull out a range of ingredients. 

"I did not expect to see you here Sans," Asgore murmured quietly as Andy worked, looking down to his left to see the skeleton monster frowning into space. "Are you friends with Andrea?"

"... she likes being called andy," Sans muttered, answering Asgore's question in a roundabout way. 

"How did that happen?" Asgore pondered curiously. "You have never shown much interest in humans before, beyond Frisk and your brother's friends." Sans looked away, smile fixed firmly and resolutely in place as he shrugged.

Andy popped back around with a steaming chiaro cappuccino, nodding to Asgore as he thanked her and turning to see if Sans wanted ketchup or anything, only to stop when faced with an empty chair. Andy raised an eyebrow at this, looking around the shop and seeing no sign of her friend. 

"He does that at times. I believe he was feeling embarrassed." 

Andy turned and grabbed a notepad, masking the slight downturn to her lips with a cough. Asgore smiled at her over the brim of his coffee cup, eyes crinkling softly. 

There was a moment of silence between the two of them, made even more prominent with the distant sound of Jay and Lizzi giggling and messing around in the back. Asgore glanced over towards the back door then back at Andy who was shaking her head fondly and rolling her eyes. His gaze seemed to grow even warmer.

“Did you know I was coming here to ask you why you wanted monster drinks? But… I do not believe I need to ask now.”

Andy blinked, tilting her head to the side and putting her drink down.

“You do know that Sans does not like tea though, yes?”

Andy’s eyes shuttered and her small, confused smile fell, making Asgore feel a brief sting of guilt for bringing this up, but he ploughed on regardless.

“Sans has always been a bit of a mysterious monster but he’s never kept his eating habits secret. Have you tried ketchup? Grillby, the Snowdin barkeeper, swears by it.”

Andy nodded briefly and wrote on her cup, hesitating on the last word for a moment before giving it to Asgore.

** I want to _make_ him something. I like to share food and drink with my friends.  **

Asgore smiled at this, then started to look thoughtful.

“Even if you gave Sans the tea, the magic would be mine, not yours, even if you brewed it. He wouldn’t be that interested in drinking _my_ tea.” 

Andy stared at him, fingers still and eyes unblinking. Slowly, she opened her mouth.

“Magic. Is tied. To. People?”

If Asgore was surprised by her slurred and stilted voice, he didn’t show it. He simply nodded and answered her question.

“Some monsters specialise in creating magical food from nothing, crafting the essence of their kindness, the very energy from their soul, into what they make. However, it is not a universal skill. Most monsters simply imbue the food they cook with their magic, giving a feeling of the monster or sometimes a sense of their emotions at the time.”

“Is there. Any way. I can. Do that? Make... Something?”

Asgore didn’t say anything for a long time, simply staring down at the cup of coffee gently cradled in his hands.

“This sort of thing is not for profit.”

Andy blinked twice at Asgore’s somber tone before she violently shook her head, waving her hands to get her point across. “No. No. For Sans.”

Now it was Asgore’s turn to blink, and then laugh.

Andy wasn’t quite sure how to react to this. If it was someone she knew better she may have huffed or told them off, but, for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why Asgore was laughing at this. So she just waited, watching him with serious eyes as he calmed down.

 “I am sorry, Andy. It is simply that I have never had a human request to learn magic for a reason like this. It was… unexpected.” 

“I don’t. Want to. Learn. Magic. If that’s. Bad. I know. About. Mages. From the. News. I just. Want to. Make food. And-”

Andy paused, her hand working its way up to her throat as she focused on her breathing for a few moments. She then picked up her notepad and quickly scribbled down the rest.

I promise I won’t sell any of it. I won’t even sell the tea. It’ll only be for those I ~~l~~ care about. 

Asgore hummed thoughtfully, taking another sip of the coffee.

 “…Perhaps I would not mind if you did. Sell the tea, that is. And, perhaps I could teach you to imbue food with your soul, but with restrictions of course,” he put down the now empty cup and smiled lightly on noticing Andy’s obvious confusion. “There are not as many ‘monster friendly’ places of commerce available as I would like. If you were to sell my tea and perhaps other monster products, under careful supervision, there would be a place for monsters here. And perhaps other businesses would follow in your steps. I believe that would be a fair trade for me teaching you a few tricks.”

Andy stared, eyes wide.

“…You’re sure?”

“Yes, I am,” Asgore stated, smiling down at Andy with an almost fond look in his eyes. “I trust Sans’s judgement.”

“Okay. I mean. Yes. Thank you,” Andy laughed, grinning and running her hands through her hair. “When would. You like-?”

“There’s no time like the present, as many humans say,” Asgore laughed in return before looking around and eyeing the uncovered windows at the front. “I think this is probably not the best place to learn though.”

Andy nodded and grinned again, wonky teeth showing in her unhindered enthusiasm. She held up a finger in a ‘wait a moment’ gesture then ran into the back.

“Lizzi. You’re in. Charge. I’ll call. Later. When I’m. Coming. Back.”

Lizzi, frozen in the midst of clapping at Jay’s air guitar pose with the crate board, didn’t even have a chance to blink before Andy had twisted back around and rushed back to the front, giddily following Asgore as he walked her out of the café. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: a chapter from Sans's POV :)


	13. Chapter 13

* * *

Sans didn’t come into the café the next few days after Asgore’s visit. He knew Asgore. The monster loved to chat about anything and everything, especially over a cup of tea. He would adore Andy, given some time. He would also, undoubtedly, tell Andy _every_ little thing he knew about Sans. Which was why Sans unconsciously decided to pop over to Grillby’s for his designated breaks over the next few days. He hadn’t realised how long ago his last visit had been until he opened the door and was promptly mobbed by the dog guard. It was nice (if tiring) to catch up with them all and he told himself he would visit more often.

He couldn’t stay away from Andy’s place for good though, he just couldn’t. So, a few days later, he found himself standing by the coffee sign board again, trying to read the new joke. They key word being ‘trying’.

There was a line of people outside the shop. That was a first. They were mostly human but he did spot a Loox and a Windsome nervously glancing around. Sans blipped into the back of the coffee shop, where all the coffee beans were kept. Day wasn’t sat there to give him the stink eye over his latest paperback. Neither was Liz there to squeak and jump a foot off the ground. It was empty, all the staff were up front.

There was a lot of noise coming from out there. Not the usual, laughing exploits of Lizzi and Jay, but a loud buzz of chatter and almost constant steaming screams of the cappuccino machines.

Sans frowned, confused and peered his head round into the café. Andy wasn’t anywhere in sight but _a_ _lot_ of other people were. Little Liz looked harried behind the counter, whispers of hair puffing out from her normally neat bunchies, as she delivered cup after cup of tea, coffee and sugary iced drinks to tables. Day looked somewhat more calm but Sans could see the tick under his left eye as a customer ‘ummed’ and ‘ahhed’ over the coffee menu and a large queue built up behind him.  

It seemed like word had got out about the monster tea then. 

Sans wisely decided to get out of dodge before Day spotted him. Maybe he’d come back in a few days, when it had calmed down some more.

 

* * *

 

It hadn’t calmed down. If anything, it had gotten worse.

It was almost closing time and not a seat was free in the café. There were also more staff behind the counter now. A brown-haired, bubbly looking woman who Sans vaguely remembered to work the odd evening and who often awkwardly stared at him whenever he was about, was being rushed off her feet as she delivered a range of sandwiches and coffees. Jay was laughing with a group of men at the counter, creating a huge queue as he dawdled and messed around with them, at least until a frazzled Lizzi yanked him off the till and sent him off to clean up some spills. 

Sans stared in from the window, eyes scanning over the groups of customers for fluffy brown hair and mismatched eyes. She wasn’t there. Sans didn’t move, a faint frown forming on his face.

Okay. Enough was enough. He walked into the café. As soon as the bell rang, Lizzi looked up. A relieved smile broke her harried expression in two and she frantically beaconed him over.

“Sans! Thank god. I haven’t seen you in over a week! Andy will be so pleased to know you were here,” she gabbled as he squeezed himself between two humans sat at the bar, ignoring their frowns as he found himself staring at a stack of cups in Liz’s hands.

“She wanted me to give you one of these each time you popped round. She says sorry, you know, for being busy and all but-”

Sans had stopped listening. He was staring at the cups.

**Why is a bad cup of coffee like the end of a marriage? Because it’s _grounds_ for divorce, **one read.

Another had a picture of a cup of coffee with a walking stick and age wrinkles. Underneath it, it read: **he was growing quite sedimental in his old age.**

**The man next to her on the train spilled coffee all over her shirt. She responded by showing him dis-stain,** said yet another, next to a stick figure doodle of a grumpy woman and a sheepish man on a train.

Sans looked up, suddenly realising Lizzi has stopped talking at some point and had dashed off to serve another customer. In her place, stood Jay, leaning over the bar and gazing curiously at him.

“Hey,” said Jay.

“hey,” Sans returned, slightly cautiously.

“… So what did you do, man?” he asked, tilting his head to the side. “I’ve never seen Andy go out of her way to avoid someone like this before. We’ve been rushed off our feet and she’s not even popped in once.”

Sans said nothing.

“Did you make a joke about her eye? Coz that’s what did it in for the last guy who tried to date her.”

Sans looked down at the cups in his hand then back up at Jay. He still didn’t say anything.

Jay frowned softly then seemed to give a mental shrug, obvious by the way his face mellowed out and his stance grew slack. “Whatever dude. Good luck getting back in the boss’s good graces.”

“What the hell did you just say, Jay?” Came Liz’s voice suddenly, making Jay jolt and glance around with a puzzled look of confusion on his face.

“Huh? What's got you so angry Liz? I was just saying how Andy’s avoiding this place and all now.”

Lizzi stared at him with a blatant and painful expression of bewildered frustration which all but evaporated from her face when she looked past him to see Sans turning to leave.

“Right. I’m gonna kill you later,” she said, before running around the bar and chasing after Sans, catching a hold of his shoulder  just before he stepped out of the front door.

“Hey, no, wait! You know about Jay, Sans. He- his head of full of fluff and- look, Andy’s not avoiding you. She’s just got a lot on her plate right now.”

Sans didn’t move. He stared blankly forward.

“You know Andy,” Lizzi continued with a frustrated sigh, clenching her hands together and looking down. “She wouldn’t just bail on you without a word. She’s not like that. She’s trying to do something for-  uh, well she’s trying to do something. So come back tomorrow afternoon, I bet she’ll be sorted by then.”

Lizzi smiled then frowned at her own wording and opened her mouth to try again but Sans beat her to the punch by turning around and giving her a tired but genuine smile.

“yeah. i know Andy. thanks, liz,” he said before turning and leaving.

Lizzi stood there, hand still perched on the door frame, a slight frown on her pointed face. He _was_ smiling but for some reason Lizzi still felt uneasy.

“Bugger this,” she muttered, turning over the open/ closed sign at the front and rushing over to Mr. Day.

“Bet’s off Mr. D. I’m interfering,” she said.

“Fucking finally,” he returned, closing the cash till with a tight grin. “Let’s clear this lot out and go have a word with the boss.”


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops! Sorry for the delay, totally meant to upload earlier this week but things have been busy.  
> This is going to be the second to last chapter now. I hope you've enjoyed it so far and will enjoy the ending :)

* * *

 

To no one’s surprise, they found Andy in the flat above the café, deaf to the world as she furiously filled out forms, balanced accounts and made countless cups of coffee. Lizzi and Mr. Day had been to Andy’s flat before, mainly after the more stressful work days or during their Christmas parties, but they’d never seen it in such a state of disarray before.

Andy wasn’t a neat freak by any means, but she usually kept her table tops clear of clutter and normally people could walk through the rooms without tripping over something. Today wasn’t usual or normal in any sense of the words. Instead of clear floors there were bags of coffee beans and sugar. Instead of clear counters, there were countless crumpled up balls of paper, several stacks of job applications and over three dozen half-empty cups of coffee. Instead of their composed and calm boss, there was a lady with frazzled hair covered in powdered sugar and ink, muttering to herself and probably being held together by pure sugar and caffeine by the way she softly vibrated in the creaking bulk of The Chair.

“Any luck finding an accountant?” Asked Lizzi, picking the way over a toppled stack of paper. 

Andy didn’t seem to hear her, instead pouring out a cup of coffee with a serious glint in her eyes. She took a long sip, stared blankly into space for a moment, then swiftly dropped the cup down on one of the few empty spaces on the counter. 

“Uh, boss?” called Mr. Day, picking up one of the coffee cups and frowning at the murky contents. “What are you doing?”

“Working,” said Andy, moving her laptop to the kitchen table and typing out a quick email.

Lizzi and Mr. Day shared a glance. Lizzi looked worried, Mr. Day looked fed up.

“Right. That’s it.”

Andy started as the laptop was closed, pulling her hands back just in time so as not to get them trapped.

“Hey!”

“Andy, you’re not doing all this admin by yourself,” said Mr. Day, folding his arms and raising an unimpressed eyebrow as Andy glowered up at him.

“I have. To. All the. Applic- ations. Either. Need to. Train or. Are here. For **weird**. Reasons. There’s no. One else.”

“What am I, sliced ham?”

Andy blinked, glare fading from her face to reveal two wide, surprises eyes.

“Wait, you can do admin?” Asked Lizzi, tilting her head in confusion. “I would’ve thought you’d hate it.”

“I do hate it,” Mr. Day corrected. “Thirty years as an accountant does that to you. And before you ask, don’t.”

Mr. Day gave her a stern look again and rubbed the back of his neck before continuing on. “That’s not the point anyhow. I’ll do the bloody admin and help you with the hiring, but that’s not the issue is it? I _know_ it’s not just the paperwork getting to you, boss. What’s going on?”

“Yeah, Andy. We’re here to help. Please tell us what’s wrong,” added Lizzi in a small voice.

Andy looked from Lizzi to Mr. Day and back again, before giving a guilty groan and burring her head in her hands.

“I can’t. Do it. I can’t. Make the. Perfect.  Coffee.”

“… What?”

Andy peaked out of her hands at Mr. Day who was peering down at her with some measure of incredulity in his expression.

“Asgore’s. Helping. Me with. Magic. Food and. I can’t. Do it. Right. He said. I need. No dis. Ractions. But I. Can’t think. Right.”

Lizzi picked up one of the stray coffee cups and sniffed it, noticing the strange metallic edge to it and giving Andy a startled look.

“You’re making magic coffee?!”

“Trying. To. But I. Can’t get. The. Feelings. Right.”

“Oh for Christ’s sake. This is why you’ve been in a mood?”

Andy and Lizzi jolted at Mr. Day’s fed up tone.

“Sans doesn’t bloody care about coffee. He doesn’t care about any of that stuff. What he cares about is you avoiding him, you idiot.”

”But I’m. Not!”

“You know that. And I know that. But Sans freaking doesn’t. Especially after that fluff brained imbecile implied Sans pissed you off.”

“ _What?!_ ”

“Ask the bonebag out if you like him this much," Mr. Day continued, ignoring Andy's shout. "Men like being asked out just as much as women y’know."

“You’d really better go talk to Sans, Andy. I tried to tell him but I don’t know if it sunk in.”

“Right. Okay. Uh. I’ll go. And-”

“He’s not going to be here right now, boss. It’s almost eight.”

Andy blinked and looked out the window, starting when she realised it was completely dark.

“You’re just lucky Liz asked him to come back tomorrow.”

Andy looked at the blushing Lizzi with a growing, wide-eyed smile.

“You’ve got until tomorrow to sort out that coffee,” murmured Lizzi, scratching at her hands and returning the smile in her own small way. “Want us to help taste test?”

“You two taste test and plan out tomorrow downstairs. I’m clearing out this mess and I don’t want you back up here until you’re sorted, you hear me Andy?”

Andy apparently did, going by the grinning hug she quickly inflicted on the poor man.  


	15. Chapter 15

* * *

 

The sky was grey and thick. The clouds formed a dense bank, low hanging and strangely still compared to the hard wind rushing through the bustling city beneath. A hint of yellow tinged the lower wisps, hinting at either snow or a thunder storm. In this cold weather though, Sans doubted any rain from a storm would stay rain for long. Already, all around him, he could see plumes of steamy breath escaping from people, following after them as they rushed too and fro, like miniature steam trains making their way home from work.

Sans sighed gustily, only a small puff of steam escaping his teeth. He stood a little distance down the street, staring at the coffee board clattering noisily in the wind. There was something written on it, in a different coloured chalk than yesterday, but he couldn’t read it from this distance. Abruptly, the wind picked up speed in a sudden swell, lifting the hood of Sans’s jacket and whacking him in the back of the head.

Grumbling quietly, Sans put up the hood properly and slouched forward, fighting against the rush of air that would hurry his steps. No need to rush. No need to even be there. It’s not like-

Sans’s mulish line of thought was cut short as he waked close enough to read the coffee sign. 

_ We offer you coffee, love and everything you’ve ever dreamed of. Sans the everything. _

Sans stared. He didn’t blink. He didn’t double-take. He just stared, and then he went in.

“Sans!”

“About time.”

This time he did double-take. Day was grinning at him from behind the counter and throwing back his arm to toss something his way. Without even thinking about it, Sans lift his hand and caught the object midair. It was a coffee cup. It had writing on it. It wasn’t a pun.

Sans read it then read it again.

“She’s at the pier?” He asked, glancing up as if looking for confirmation for the strange message.

“Yeah, she’s been there for about half an hour now. You should hurry,” beamed Lizzi, waving off a customer to beam down at Sans from behind the till.  

“Holy shit, mate. How the hell did you get her to ask you out? None of the others ever got this far with her."

Jay, who had been leaning over Sans’s shoulder to reach for the cup, quickly found himself on the receiving end of two steady glares and, in a show of never before seen and rather uncharacteristic self-preservation, put his hands up and backed away. 

“All those who tried before were rude and not respectful,” said Lizzi, sending the retreating Jay a flat look before turning back to Sans with considerably more warmth. Sans just blinked, nonplused, then glanced over at Mr. Day who gave him a thumbs up.

"She never said it was a date."

It was now Mr. Day's turn to blink stupidly for a moment before rallying with a deep frown. "Jeez boy, what happened to your self-confidence. Girls don't like guys who put themselves down all the time."

Lizzi gave him a light whack around the ear before turning back to Sans with a considering look on her face. “Confidence’s not _everything_ you need... but it can be good too, but _real_ confidence. Like the confidence of someone who's actually great and doesn't just think he is.”

She didn’t look at Jay as she said this but Mr. Day did. With a _smirk_.

“ _But what if the person isn't great?”_  Sans asked. 

"Oh dear," Lizzi murmured. She and Mr. Day exchanged a brief look.

"You take this one," Mr. Day grumbled before turning back to serve another customer. 

Lizzi nodded to herself, licking her lips and stared up at the ceiling for a few seconds.  “Okay, right. Uh- come and take a seat Sans.”

Sans, probably working entirely on autopilot at that moment, did as she said, sitting across from her on one of the bar stools. Lizzi picked up one of the boxes of tea bags and started to empty it out into the different containers. Her fingers clicked softly as she worked, smooth but dry as they sorted out the tangled strings. She started to talk, voice only on the cusp of hearing:

“I think I get it? Why you’re saying that and the way you are. Look we all have things we don't like about ourselves, it's natural." She told him, still staring down at her hands, the bone like digits curling and uncurling as they danced along the boxes and jars. "But that’s supposed to be for when we make mistakes we can fix, or to help us become better. Otherwise it’s just… it’s like one of those funny mirrors, you know in circuses. They’re all weird and they warp what you look like.  And what you see in yourself and those flaws? They're not as big as they look.”

There would have been a pause there, a beat of silence, but the customers were loud and Lizzi was nervous. She ‘ummed’ and ‘erred’ for a few seconds before abruptly putting the tea box down and leaning in close into San’s personal space.

“Trust me Sans, you're more than what you think of yourself." 

Sans didn’t move away. He stared into her unblinking eyes, taking in the way she was obviously forcing herself not to glance away or pull back. Sans smiled and ruffled her hair, making her squawk and pull away.   

"thanks kid.”

"Okay, that's enough of that," butt in Mr. Day, who hadn’t gone off that far it turned out. "Go meet up with the boss. Buy her some candy floss, win her some teddy bears. Make sure to take her on the carousel, she likes the slow rides the most. And for **fucks** sake... enjoy yourself." 

Sans smiled slowly and nodded with a small huffing laugh. He pushed back his chair and gave them both a wave before turning on the spot and vanishing, paper cup firmly in hand.

Lizzi smiled, sniffed and abruptly hugged the old, crotchety Mr. Day, who in turn tried to bat her off with a tea towel.  

 

* * *

 

Andy was walking up and down the christmasified pier when Sans got there, frowning softly to herself, hands tapping away on the thermos coffee cup in her hands. 

He slowly walked up behind her, stepping around the graffitied bench beside her. He listened as she tried over and over to force hushed words out of her mouth and watched as she grew more and more frustrated with them. 

_Huh_. 

“hey.”

Andy jumped, spinning round and almost dropping her drink. _Almost_. Sans’s hands captured hers and the drink, steadying her so she wouldn’t spill the drink on herself.

“Hey,” she returned, her smile lopsided, her nose pink and her eyes sparkling in the soft glow of Christmas lights.

Sans tried to pull his hands away but they seemed to be stuck. Andy was holding onto them, putting her cup into his grip. He glanced down at the cup then up at her. There was nothing written on it...

"This is. What. I've been. Doing. The last. Few weeks." She told him. Her breath came out as mist, swept away by the soft wind.

Sans looked at the cup confusedly, taking off the lid and seeing black coffee slosh back at him. The  _smell_  though...

"Ah- Asgore. Said I. Need calm. To make. It. Which I'm. Not. Around. You."

He lifted it to his mouth and took a sip, only for his whole body to go ridged. His smile quirked and jolted. 

Andy seemed to panic slightly when she took in that frozen grin. "I'm sor-sorry. It's bad. Isn't. It? Oh god. I-" Sans slowly put the coffee down on a bench and faced Andy, expression blank. Then suddenly he was moving, pressing his smile into her lips. Andy went ramrod straight. She stared at him, eyes wide with shock for a split second before closing as she leaned into that kiss, cradling his face in her hands. They pulled apart. Sans didn’t say anything, neither did Andy. Then Andy giggled.

“I was. Such an. Idiot. I should. Have. Kissed you. Ages ago.”

“better latte than never,” Sans returned, a quiet chuckle echoing in his chest. He could smell the coffee on her, and a slight hint of mint. He could feel the heat emanating from her skin and the way her heart was beating as he gently moved his chest against hers. He didn’t say anything, he simply looked at her and smiled as she slowly leaned in once more.

Coffee was now officially his favourite drink. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end!!!!!!  
> Thanks for reading this the whole way through! I hope you enjoyed it and have a lovely Christmas :) xxxx

**Author's Note:**

> Big thanks to my lovely beta reader PhantomGirl47 for being a fantastic help with this and for being a very nice person :)


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